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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Tracking government employment is a surprisingly tricky affair. The NAICS is our go-to handbook and the official source of info on what is and ins't included in an industry. Unfortunately, government workers are employed in many different industries. Thus we classify businesses based on their ownership (private or public). Here are some of the things we know about public (government) employment:

Nearly half of Oregon's government workers (47%) were employed in the education industry in 2006, while more than one in four (28.5%) were employed in public administration. The remaining 25 percent of public-sector workers were mostly in social assistance, transportation, or a non-classifiable industry.

In general, public sector workers are paid more than private sector workers. There are several reasons for this:- The occupational mix for government employment is more concentrated in high-wage occupations- Public-sector employees tend to be somewhat older than private-sector employees. Older workers usually have more experience and can therefore command a higher wage.- On average, jobs in the public sector require more education.- There is also a much higher incidence of unionization among government employees, which may lead to higher compensation levels.

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